Many companies are continuing to do the hard work of improving existing battery technologies, though they tend not to claim their technology is a “breakthrough,” since their work leads to small improvements in performance.
One difficult thing about developing better batteries is that the technology is still poorly understood. Changing one part of a battery—say, by introducing a new electrode—can produce unforeseen problems, some of which can’t be detected without years of testing.
There have been several announcements in recent months indicating that developers may be on the edge of a breakthrough — although sceptics continue to delight in pointing out that solid state batteries have been ‘just a few years away’ for well over a decade now.
While countless breakthroughs have been announced over the last decade, time and again these advances failed to translate into commercial batteries. One difficult thing about developing better batteries is that the technology is still poorly understood.
A better battery could change everything. But while countless breakthroughs have been announced over the last decade, time and again these advances have failed to translate into commercial batteries with anything like the promised improvements in cost and energy storage.
In the superheated market for batteries, promising lab developments often get overhyped by startups. Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE Type the words “battery” and “breakthrough” into your search engine of choice, and you’ll encounter page after page of links.